The invention relates to a multispindle lathe comprising a machine frame, a spindle drum mounted on the machine frame for rotation about a spindle drum axis, at least two workpiece spindles arranged in spindle positions in the spindle drum with their workpiece receiving means rotatable about a respective spindle axis, a work area arranged at the end face of the spindle drum and the workpiece spindles, a plurality of spindle stations provided stationarily on the machine frame, into which the workpiece spindles are adapted to be brought by rotation of the spindle drum about the spindle drum axis, some of the spindle stations being designed as machining stations for machining the workpieces therein, and at least one of the spindle stations being designed as workpiece removal station.
Generally the problem with such multispindle lathes is that the machining of the workpieces is extremely time-critical, i.e., the operations have to be optimized to save fractions of seconds in order to achieve optimum economic operation of these multispindle lathes.
It is also necessary to make only extremely short times available for removal of the workpieces in the workpiece removal station if one is to prevent removal of the workpieces and possibly additional machining thereof in the workpiece receiving means from requiring times that are longer than the machining times in the machining stations and hence time being wasted in the other machining stations owing to removal of the workpieces.
It is known to optimize workpiece removal by allocating opposite to the spindle drum with the workpiece spindles a spindle drum with opposed spindles, but such a solution is costly.
The object underlying the invention is, therefore, to so improve a multispindle lathe of the kind described at the outset that removal of workpieces in the workpiece removal station, which can take place very quickly, is possible with simple means.